


In Due Time

by Sockopunch



Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Genre: Dedesuka, Developing Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Gen, M/M, Mutual Pining, Shippy Gen, others from the anime show up here and there to help them figure it out but they stupid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-19 00:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22301980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sockopunch/pseuds/Sockopunch
Summary: An exploration of Dedede and Escargoon's friendship evolving into something more than they bargained for.(30 prompt challenge.)
Relationships: Escargoon/King Dedede
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	1. Defiant

**Author's Note:**

> I try so fucking hard to do all the prompts each time I attempt this, but results vary so we'll see how far I get. 
> 
> Anyhow, I need more content of these two so why not write my OWN. General and fluff.
> 
> Timeline hops around!

King Dedede erupts into laughter the first time the servant talks back to him.

Perhaps he’s unaware of the sarcastic undertone of his words or he simply doesn’t care, knowing all too well he’ll get his way one way or another being who he is. Escargoon concludes its the latter but can’t help himself from still being throughly perplexed by his employer's reaction. He was half expecting to be fired on the spot for being disobedient or at the very least reprimanded but instead, the king finds his behavior oddly amusing. 

“ You’re pretty spunky for such a shrimp! I like that!” Dedede states, a grin plastered on his chubby face as he continues to laugh. 

Escargoon lets out an ‘oof’ when the king’s heavy hand suddenly slaps his back in a friendly gesture, hard enough to make him connect to the ground. 

“ Oh, sorry.” Dedede mutters lamely seemingly unaware of the force behind his gesture. 

Escargoon quickly excuses himself to take care of the menial task he was ordered to do before he is subjected to more ‘friendly’ back pats.

As he makes his way down the hallways of the large castle, he tries to take solace in that the king ‘likes’ him as job security and nothing more.


	2. Powder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gen Content.

The snow that fell overnight on Castle Dedede and Cappy Town was completely unnatural for the hemisphere they lived in but Dedede wasn’t complaining. At long last the grueling heat had stopped, replaced by fresh chilly air. 

He completely forgets that the reasoning behind this strange erupt shift in weather is due to the Ice Dragon he and Escargoon had accidentally let out of the castle one night, for he’s much too focused on getting outside and experiencing the snow firsthand. His ever loyal lackey trailing behind him trying to get him to bundle up least he catch a cold. 

“ This the first time you see snow sire?” Escargoon inquiries with a smirk playing on his lips as he watches the king’s childlike wonder at the phenomenon as it continues to fall around them. 

Dedede turns to answer him but is interrupted by a snowball suddenly colliding with the side of his head. 

“ Hey!?” He barks frowning. 

Escargoon simply points in the direction of the offenders. 

The offenders being Tuff and Kirby who just also happened to be outside the castle courtyard and having spotted King Dedede, decided a snowball fight would be appropriate. 

“ Lil punks, come on, you and I can take them!” Dedede states with a gleam in his eyes as he takes Escargoon’s hand to pull him along to evade the onslaught of attacks from the opposing team. 

The whole thing is entirely juvenile, but whatever else they had in mind to do today could wait until after they claimed victory.


	3. Grateful

“ Happy Birthday Goonie.” Dedede states somewhat shyly as he hands the snail a decently large sized box.

“ You got me a gift? You didn’t have to do that.” Escargoon can hardly stop the smile that spreads across his face despite his words.

The present is wrapped rather sloppily which Escargoon takes to mean that Dedede had done it himself versus ordering someone else to do it. A touching sentiment regardless of its less than stellar presentation.

“ Ain’t ya gonna open it?”

“ Well if you want me to open it now I suppose so.”

Escargoon’s hands undo the bow and began to tear into the paper to unveil the contents of his gift. He’s left speechless with what stands before him. A beautiful piece of hi-tech machinery he had had his eyes on for quite some time now, all the things he had daydreamed he could build with that thing, and now it was here, right in front of him.

Dedede looks unsure of himself as the servant’s gaze comes to meet his with an expression he has a hard time deciphering.

“ I uh- membered that you wanted that, hope you didn’t go out and get it yourself! I mean, that is, uh- if ya don’t like I can get ya something else! Wouldn’t want ya to be unhappy on your bir-”

Dedede practically jumps out of his skin when he suddenly finds Escargoon hugging him.

“ Thank you.”

“ Huh?” He gawks at the smaller being currently against him.

“ I said thank you, I really like it.”

“ Uh well,” He coughs awkwardly clearly flustered. “ You better it wasn’t cheap.”

Escargoon rolls his eyes.

Dedede places a hand awkwardly on the top of his head and gently pats him to signal to let go.

“ Why don’t ya go and test that puppy out?”

He doesn't have to tell him twice. Before he knows it, the snail bolts to his mock lab space in the castle's observatory level to play with his new toy. When he doesn’t see Escargoon for the rest of the evening, he assumes that means that he **really** did like his gift.


	4. Decent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :^) 
> 
> I like to imagine that King Dedede attends parties with other royals from other planets occasionally, gotta take your best bud and masked orb of course.

Escargoon looks pensively back at his reflection as he straightens his bowtie for the up-tenth time in the past fifteen minutes. 

He had been rather unsure of the choice in color of the suit jacket that Dedede had ordered to be tailored specifically for him, but as he continued to study his reflection, he found that it complimented his lavender complexion quite nicely. A rich dark violet adorned with an embroidered patch of the kingdom’s emblem over his breast pocket amongst a handful of elaborately detailed buttons that made him look quite spiffy if he dare say so himself for a ‘second in command’. 

King Dedede had scolded him for weeks about having to dress as formally as possible for the occasion and Escargoon couldn’t help but wonder why the monarch would worry so much about how his servant looked when he was tagging along _perhaps_ to babysit his boss from drinking himself into a stupor at the royal gathering or more than likely, babysitting their form of transportation with Meta Knight for the entire evening, while the king had fun mingling with other royals from neighboring planets. 

At least Meta Knight liked to play cards Escargoon reasoned as he continued to twist and turn to make sure everything looked in place, stopping to straighten his bowtie once more. 

“ Are ya done in there already? We’re gonna be late! Meta Knight’s already ta go, you're holding us up!” Dedede’s voice sounded from outside his bedroom door riddled with annoyance. 

Before Escargoon could answer him, the king invited himself in, also decked out in a suit of his own instead of his typical garb. 

“ Whoa...” 

“ What?” Escargoon asked as Dedede approached him, suddenly turning him round to inspect his new look from every angle. 

“ Ya clean up awful nicely, looks good on ya handsome. Told ya!” He proclaimed matter of factly much to Escargoon’s embarrassment. However, not nearly as embarrassing as the fact that the king knew his own measurements better than he did or the sudden compliment that had come out of his mouth. 

“ Y-you don’t look half bad yourself, sire.” Escargoon managed to spurt out cheeks flushing. 

“Pssh, you can tell **me** how handsome **I am** in the car now get a move on slowpoke!” 

Escargoon obediently followed after him, feeling much more confident in his evening's garb than he had a moment ago. 


	5. Remorseful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually from another prompt list but I guess I can mix and mingle.

He could tell the snail was angry with him. 

Finding Escargoon cooped up in the castle attic was enough evidence of that. The servant only seemed to stow away in here when he was upset as of late, or so Dedede had noticed. Therefore it was no surprise to find his ever loyal companion busying his hands with something after their ‘fight’ earlier on in the day. The two hadn’t so much as exchanged words after Dedede had said something a tad bit unsavory in regards to his ‘best friend’. 

“ Hey uh, Escargoon,” Dedede began with uncertainty as he approached his ever loyal servant. 

Escargoon made no motion to greet him, instead continuing to focus on his task of soldering the metal together on his latest contraption. 

Dedede frowned slightly at the cold shoulder treatment but trudged his way over to the snail’s side regardless. Standing right behind him however, he began to feel nervous. 

How exactly was he supposed to go about this? 

He'd never ever ever apologized to anyone before. Why would he need to? He’d never done anything wrong before. Or at the very least, never done anything wrong that he felt remotely bad about it. 

But the deep stab of hurt in Escargoon’s eyes had made him feel something and it was something he didn't like one bit after what was done was done. 

After consulting the girly and her bratty brother (much to their dismay), he had been informed that the foreign emotion he was feeling was called ‘guilt’. 

“ I'm, so-sorry about earlier.” He managed to say with as much genuinity poured into it as possible. “I didn’t mean it you know that right?” 

The snail finally turned around to look at him after what felt like centuries to King Dedede. Lifting the safeguard from his face to reveal a rather puzzled expression. 

Escargoon honestly hadn’t expected to hear an apology come out of his majesty’s mouth when he graced his makeshift work space with his presence. In all honesty he had expected the rotund penguin to begin barking orders at him and remark on how he wasn’t paying him to sulk about just because his feelings had gotten hurt. The unexpectedness had stunned him briefly but it didn’t take long for a scowl to reform on his face. 

“Are you really sorry?” Escargoon muttered sounding rather bitter. “You never apologize and certainly not to me. After all I am replaceable aren't I? There’s a million more servants just like me aren’t there?” 

Dedede felt a harsh jab of guilt at his gut but refused to let it be shown on his face, instead opting to frown back at Escargoon. 

He had said something stupid like that hadn't he? 

However, that hadn’t been the response he was hoping for after offering an apology.

“Course I am! I wouldn’t have dun said I was sorry if I wasn’t!” 

“ That’s a laugh,” the servant scoffed sounding less than convinced. “ What brought about this sudden change of heart your majesty? Since when have you ever cared about anyone but yourself?” 

“I felt bad alright!” Dedede blurted as a response unable to think of anything else to say. 

“ You felt bad?” Escargoon repeated as if he was trying to make sense of the statement thrown back at him. 

“ Course, you're my best buddy, no one could ever replace you.” Dedede said softly, a hint of affection in his voice. “ I care a lot about you dummy, don’t you forget that.” 

Escargoon couldn't quite place what it was that he heard in the king’s voice but whatever it was, it made his chest swell and his cheeks hot despite the slight backhanded comment. 

Dedede looked at him curiously waiting for him to say something. The snail coughed awkwardly when he realized he was silent for a bit too long. 

“ Well, if you felt bad enough to apologize I guess, I can forgive you. You seem like you mean it.” He said squinting in suspicion. 

“ Cross my heart and hope ta die.” Dedede stated as confirmation performing the gesture. A goofy smile on his lips. Escargoon rolled his eyes as he shook his head lightly, before flipping the safeguard over his face to hide the small smile forming at the king's childish gesture. 

“ That can be arranged.” He baited teasingly earning a playful punch to his arm in response.


	6. Dismiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dedede gives Escargoon a day off, a misunderstanding ensues.

“Are you firing me?” Escargoon questions in fear racking his brain for any possible remarks or actions he’s done in the past weeks to warrant this. It was hard to pinpoint a specific action, one could never be too certain with King Dedede as their boss, the portly penguin had a temper that was rather unpredictable even after all these years. 

“ What part of you taking the day off sounded like that?” Dedede questioned with a scoff taking the feather duster out of his companion’s grip. 

“It’s just,” Escargoon began nervously not sure if explaining himself to the king would do him any good. “The last time you gave anyone a day off was when you fired the Waddle Dees sire.” 

Waddle Doo had asked for a day off for himself and the guards, one day, and Dedede had blown his top and kicked all of them out. Surely the king could understand where he was coming from.

“If you don’t want the day off that’s fine, you can keep on working then I certainly won’t complain.” Dedede remarked clearly annoyed his random act of kindness was being questioned. 

“No! I mean I want a day off! I ju-,” The servant blabbed nervously. “ Just, you swear I’ll have a job to come back to tomorrow?”

“Like I would fire you dummy.” Dedede retorted turning the smaller servant around and promptly pushing him out of his bedroom. “Now go do whatever it is y’all supposed to do on a day off and don’t let me catch you working ya hear!” With that, he had slammed the door not giving Escargoon any choice but to obey his command. 

Escargoon glanced back at the now closed door curiously. Whatever had brought this kindness on was greatly appreciated but, he had to wonder why the king had felt like being generous with him now.

He shook his head, that was a thought for another time, for now, he was supposed to enjoy his day off, and he planned to enjoy every single second of it before the king changed his mind.


	7. Hush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stormy night leads Dedede to bunking with Escargoon for the night.

A much needed and welcomed rain storm had crawled its way across the sky that evening, a blessing in itself for Cappy Town as the weather as of late had been unbearably hot and humid. 

The rain fell at a consistent rhythm, rapping against the castle windows with a spark of lighting occasionally flashing across the pitch black sky, followed by a booming roar of thunder. The noise was pleasant for most, luring them into restful slumbers all except for one resident of Castle Dedede. 

Escargoon wasn’t remotely surprised when Dedede graced his bedroom with his presence decked out in his pajamas. The servant had put the king to bed hours ago, while he enjoyed the later half of the evening to himself, usually with a book or drawing up blueprints for a new contraption. But he had an inkling that tonight wouldn’t be one of solitude with the projected forecast. 

Dedede had been making it a habit to bunk with the servant in evenings that storms were raging; seemingly sleeping beside someone made him feel safe from the disruptive noise outside and Escargoon couldn’t deny that he was extremely comfortable with the king as a personal heater beside him. 

“Can’t sleep?” He asked feigning ignorance as to why the king had made his way over here. 

“Yeah, too much noise.” Dedede responded lamely padding over to his assistant’s bed and taking a seat. The bed springs groaned in protest at the weight suddenly placed upon them, not used to holding a being more than double its owner’s weight. 

Escargoon simply nodded in acknowledgement not pushing the issue further.

“What ya up to anyhow? Why ain’t you sleeping?” Dedede inquired curiously watching Escargoon scan the bookcase for something. 

“I was planning to read, but I never go to bed as early as you do sire. There’s things to be done.” 

“No wonder you always so cheery in the morning.” 

“Like you are?” Escargoon baited. 

“More so than you slugmug, you awfully cranky in the morning.” 

“I guess you got me there.” Escargoon shrugged. Before casually joining Dedede on the bed when he didn’t find anything that peaked his interest. 

“Weren’t you gonna read?” Dedede questioned as he sprawled out getting comfy under Escargoon’s covers.

“Changed my mind, besides I’d hate to keep you up much longer it’s past your bedtime.” The snail teased lightly noting the king was looking rather sleepy already. 

“ I'd fall asleep a lot faster if ya read to me.” Dedede responded sleepily. " Dat is if ya wanna?" 

" I don't mind, shall we continue the book we started?" 

Dedede nodded. Escargoon leant over to pull the book out from his bedside table as Dedede scooted closer to look at the illustrations as he began to read. 

They had gotten half way through the next chapter before Escargoon noted soft snores coming out of his bedmate beside him. A lop-sided smile escaped him as he glanced at the sleeping being. He yawned. Perhaps it was time he called it a night as well. 

Escargoon reached over to switch the bedside lamp off before settling into his spot. He was momentarily perplexed when Dedede suddenly reached out for him in the dark, engulfing him in a hug. Escargoon returned the gesture as best he could, enjoying the warmth that was beginning to pool between them as they rested against each other. Dedede’s chin planted itself against the top of his head and the murmur of a 'goodnight' was all Escargoon heard before falling deep asleep in the penguin’s grasp as the rain continued to fall.


End file.
